Pompey CVA Passed

25 June 2012 04:45

The Company Voluntary Agreement proposed at today's creditors meeting has been passed, with the relevant number of parties accepting Balram Chainrai's offer of two pence in the pound.

The meeting was delayed for an hour to allow the Football League and Portpin to deliberate over an amendment to the CVA which would allow other buyers the time to purchase the club within 28 days, which was then approved.

The Trust now have 28 days to submit their bid for the club, which so far seems to be an outline and subject to due dilligence, so they'll have to hurry if they want to propose their own CVA although it seems like Portpin are open to this suggestion.

There was also the point that if a CVA had not been passed today then the Football League would have imposed another points penalty on the club, which may have influence the creditors' vote slightly.

The major point of this CVA and the forthcoming one from the Trust is that it's conditional on getting the wage bill down to a manageable level. If not, the club could still be liquidated.

This could be a huge stumbling block when it comes to buying the club out of administration as, according to reports, Aaron Mokoena is now demanding a £600,000 payout to terminate his contract so he can go back to South Africa.

Added to the reported demands from Kanu (£300,000) and Tal Ben-Haim (£2 million), Pompey would have to shed another £3 million to get these three players off a wage bill which needs to be slashed from £9.5 million p/a to £5 million p/a.

Trevor Birch has said that if agreements cannot be reached with these players (and maybe others too) then Portsmouth FC will be liquidated.

So July is going to be yet another painful month in 2012 for all Pompey fans.